Heinrich Besseler (April 2, 1900 – July 25, 1969) was a German
musicologist
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
born in
Hörde
Hörde is a ''Stadtbezirk'' ("City District") and also a ''Stadtteil'' ('' Quarter'') in the south of the city of Dortmund, in Germany.
Hörde is situated at 51°29' North, 7°30' West, and is at an elevation of 112 metres above mean sea level. ...
. He is particularly known for his colossal work, ''Die Musik des Mittelalters und der Renaissance'' (1931), which provided a new perspective on historical musicology by taking a
history-of-ideas approach to music history.
Life
Besseler studied philosophy (under
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
),
German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...
, mathematics and natural science in
Freiburg im Breisgau
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...
. Subsequently, he studied
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
(under
Hans Gál
Hans Gál OBE (5 August 1890 – 3 October 1987) was an Austrian composer, pedagogue, musicologist, and author, who emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1938.
Life
Gál was born to a Jewish family in the small village of Brunn am Gebirge, Lowe ...
) and musicology (under
Wilibald Gurlitt
Wilibald Gurlitt (1 March 1889, Dresden – 15 December 1963, Freiburg) was a German musicologist.
Gurlitt, son of the art historian Cornelius Gurlitt, attended the St. Anne Semi-Classical Secondary School (''Annenrealgymnasium'') in Dresd ...
,
Guido Adler
Guido Adler (1 November 1855, Ivančice (Eibenschütz), Moravia – 15 February 1941, Vienna) was a Bohemian-Austrian musicologist and writer.
Biography
Early life and education
Adler was born at Eibenschütz in Moravia in 1855. He moved ...
and
Wilhelm Fischer) in Vienna and Freiburg. In 1923 he obtained a doctoral degree in musicology from the
University of Freiburg
The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...
. The subject of his thesis was the history and stylistic development of
dance suites in seventeenth-century Germany. After further studies at the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
, he wrote a professorial thesis on
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
music, spanning the years between 1250 and 1350. From 1928 he taught at the
University of Heidelberg
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
.
Horst Seeger
Horst Seeger (6 November 1926 – 2 January 1999), pseudonyme ''Horst Schell'', was a German musicologist, music critic, dramaturg, librettist and opera director.
Leben
Born in Erkner, Seeger studied musicology at the Humboldt University of Be ...
, ''Musiklexikon: Personen A–Z'' (Leipzig: Deutscher Verlag für Musik, 1981).
In 1934, Besseler became a member of the
Sturmabteilung
The (; SA; literally "Storm Detachment") was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi ral ...
.
[Ernst Klee, ''Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945'' (Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 2007), p. 48.] While admittedly failing to distance himself from
National Socialism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
, he did come into some conflicts with
Herbert Gerigk
Herbert Gerigk (2 March 1905, Mannheim – 20 June 1996, Dortmund) was a German musicologist, notable for his co-authoring of the Nazi '' Lexicon of Jews in Music''.
After graduation in 1928, Herbert Gerigk published in 1932 a thesis on Giuseppe ...
, the most notorious antisemitic musicologist in Germany. From 1949 to 1956 he taught at the
University of Jena
The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany.
The un ...
, and from 1957 to 1965 at the
University of Leipzig
Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...
.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
in 1967, and died in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
two years later.
Books
* ''Beiträge zur Stilgeschichte der deutschen Suite im 17. Jahrhundert'' (doctoral thesis, 1923)
* ''Die Die Motettenkomposition von Petrus de Cruce bis Philipp von Vitry'' (professorial thesis, 1925)
* ''Die Musik des Mittelalters und der Renaissance'' (Potsdam:
Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Athenaion
The (AVG, AVg, Aka, AV; English: Academic publishing company) in Leipzig was an important German academic publisher, which was founded in 1906.
The original Jewish owners of the publishing house and key employees were expropriated during the t ...
, 1931)
* ''Zum Problem der Tenorgeige'', Musikalische Gegenwartsfragen I, 1949
* ''Bourdon und Fauxbourdon – Studien zum Ursprung der niederländischen Musik'', 1950
* ''Fünf echte Bildnisse Johann Sebastian Bachs'', 1956
* ''Das musikalische Hören der Neuzeit'', 1959
* ''Das Schriftbild der mehrstimmigen Musik'', 1973 (co-authored with
Peter Gülke
Peter Ludwig Gülke (born 29 April 1934) is a German conductor and musicologist. Biography
Born in Weimar, Gülke studied cello and musicology at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar. He completed his doctorate in philosophy in Leipzi ...
).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Besseler, Heinrich
1900 births
1969 deaths
20th-century German musicologists